Teach Us To Pray

Rev. Debbie Cato
Luke 11:1-13
Fairfield Community Church
August 14, 2022 

Let us pray:  Open our ears and humble our hearts as we approach your Word read and proclaimed today, Great God. May we listen, discern and follow the path you intend for us. Amen.

 

Teach Us to Pray

 

I started out, planning on just preaching on the first 4 verses.  Just the verses about Jesus teaching the disciples to pray.  I did that because the rest of this passage, the rest of this Gospel teaching, is full of teachings that are mis-interpreted, preached wrong,(in my opinion!) and used to make people feel bad. 

“Everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, for everyone who knows, the door will be opened.”  “I tell you, even though the friend whose door you bang on at midnight to ask for bread will not get up and give you anything because you are his friend, at least because of your persistence, he will get up and give you whatever you need.”

Debi Thomas calls these words “landmines.”  Not because Jesus’ words put us in danger but because interpretation matters.  Read the wrong way, Jesus’s teaching on prayer renders prayer transactional, inviting us to believe that God is like a vending machine into which we insert prayers like shining quarters[1] and expect the answers in return – our answers.

We are taught that if we pray hard enough and persistently, prayer will heal diseases, prevent car accidents, feed hungry children, prevent premature deaths, save broken relationships, and stop violent crimes.  So, we pray and pray and pray, and diseases do not always get better, car accidents happen, children starve, relationships break apart, and crime and war happen.  Too often  you are told you just need to pray harder or your faith isn’t strong enough, or God did answer your prayers and the answer was no.[2] 

This can be harmful and make you question everything about your faith, how you pray, and if prayer even matters.  I don’t think it’s good theology!  And I don’t believe it’s what Jesus was saying.  I think that asking what role prayer plays in the face of the ongoing tragedies, injustices, and oppression in our world is raising the hardest questions of our faith and I think that’s important to talk about. So, I’m preaching on this whole passage. What is prayer and why is it important that we pray?  What can we honestly make of Jesus’ teaching in this Gospel passage?  What can we carry away with integrity from these passages?

First, the disciples ask, “Lord, teach me to pray.”  It’s a simple request.  Have you ever asked God to teach you to pray?  Have you ever considered that asking might give God joy?

The disciples were not inexperienced when it came to prayer.  They were devout Jews who most likely grew up attending Sabbath services, lifting their hands in worship, or lying prone on the ground to make their confessions.  They knew how to pray.  What they were asking for was a better technique.[3]

They must have noticed something different when they watched Jesus pray.  Perhaps intimacy.  Belonging.  Trust.  Peace.  A closeness to God that was transformative and nourishing.  Perhaps they noticed that Jesus came away after praying with a renewed perspective, greater strength, and deeper empathy.[4] Maybe they even noticed that Jesus was at peace after He had gone away and prayed.

And what did Jesus tell them to pray for?  The Lord’s Prayer…. These 57 words, covers what Jesus thinks we need to pray about.   These 57 words gather up the whole of life.  

They encompass every dimension of our human existence. 

They encompass all of time – past, present, and future.

Nothing is left out.  Nothing is too big.  Nothing is too small.

I think that when Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, he knew that we do not know what we need.  We THINK we know.

          We think we see the whole picture.
     We think we recognize all the factors involved in our circumstances.
                   We think we understand ourselves,
                             Our desires
                                      Our longings
                                                Our fears.
We do not.  But our Father does.

The Father of Jesus, who by grace is OUR Father, knows we need bread and sustenance  We need  forgiveness and reconciliation with God and each other.  He knows we need guidance and protections.  He knows we need to experience His name being Holy, and His kingdom coming now on earth.  We need His perfect will being done.  It turns out that our greatest need is the Father himself.  We discover that our real need is to see the Father’s agenda fulfilled.

But, back to the landmines as Debi Thomas calls them.  Jesus tells the disciples, “Ask, seek, knock.” 

What if we change those words to “yearn” or “hunger” or “want”?  What if Jesus’s lesson here is a lesson on permission?  Permission to name our longings?  To acknowledge the desires which drive and haunt us?  To state without reservation or embarrassment that all is not okay, that we are not yet full, that we are going to keep pounding on the door because we still need bread right now.[5]  That it’s urgent.  We are frantic.

Notice that there is nothing dainty or delicate about this teaching from Jesus.  It is a holy yearning insisting on itself to a God who can more than handle our ferocity.  It is imperative.  I wonder how our prayer life would change if we accepted Jesus’ call to prayer as a call to struggle with God.[6]  We can be  honest in our prayers – both with words and emotions.  After all, God already knows what’s on our hearts. 

And then, Jesus says, “How much more.”  If we read the passage carefully, we will find something that is surprising.  There is only one promise in this teaching.  Jesus finishes his teaching on prayer with a striking sentence:  “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” 

What Jesus promises us in answer to our prayers is the Holy Spirit.  That’s it.  That’s all there is no other promise or guarantee.   But that’s SO huge!

God will never fail to give us His own abundant, indwelling, and overflowing self as the answer we actually need.  When we struggle in prayer, God will not withhold His loving, consoling, healing, transforming, and empowering Spirit from us.[7]

Richard Foster, in “The Perpetual Flame of Devotion”, says, “So why pray?  Not out of obligation.  Not out of a desire to “get” things from God.  Not in the hopes of enhancing our standing in the religious community.  No,  we pray because God in his amazing grace calls to us, seeks us out, and urges us to respond to a love that will not let us go.  This is why we pray.”

Perhaps praying is more about being with God than wanting quick answers and being impatient and wanting to transact business with him.  It’s a releasing of our will and flowing into the will of God. In prayer we learn to walk with God day by day, and we learn a simple love for Jesus. [8]   What if it’s about resting in God’s love and peace and presence and walking away transformed and filled with his peace and strength?

Prayer changes us.  It deepens our relationship with God and give us peace and assurance that He is in charge, and He is with us in all things and all times. 

So, we pray.  We pray because Jesus wants us to.  We pray because it is what God’s children do.  We pray because Jesus invites us to Ask, seek, and knock.  He invites us to be persistent.  We pray because we yearn, and our yearning is precious to God.  With words, without words, through laughter, through tears, in hope and in despair, our prayers usher in God’s Spirit and remind us that we are not alone in this broken, aching world. 

God’s Spirit is our yes.  God’s Spirit is our guarantee.

 

Let us pray:  Loving God.  Thank you for teaching us to pray. Help us to remember that there is no wrong way to pray.  You just want to hear from us. You just want to know us.  Help us to spend time with you and get to know you.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

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[1] Into the Mess & Other Jesus Stories:  Reflections on the Life of Christ.  Debie Thomas.  Cascade Books.  2022. When You Pray. P151.
[2] Into the Mess & Other Jesus Stories:  Reflections on the Life of Christ.  Debie Thomas.  Cascade Books.  2022. When You Pray. P151.
3] Into the Mess & Other Jesus Stories:  Reflections on the Life of Christ.  Debie Thomas.  Cascade Books.  2022. When You Pray. P152.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Into the Mess & Other Jesus Stories:  Reflections on the Life of Christ.  Debie Thomas.  Cascade Books.  2022. When You Pray. P153.
[6] Into the Mess & Other Jesus Stories:  Reflections on the Life of Christ.  Debie Thomas.  Cascade Books.  2022. When You Pray. P154.
[7][7] Into the Mess & Other Jesus Stories:  Reflections on the Life of Christ.  Debie Thomas.  Cascade Books.  2022. When You Pray. P154.
[8] Richard Foster, “the Perpetual Flame of Devotion.  As posted on Facebook.